Below are the 19 most recent journal entries recorded in Game Developers' LiveJournal:

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Sunday, June 7th, 2009
8:13 pm [drakkenwulf]	Reusable Code in Games? I just had an epiphany. I now understand why it is possible that "shared code" is not the same as "reuseable code". Up until this point in my career I've believed that shared code is always better. Reasons: - bugfree code is hard to find; - the more things that make use of said bugfree code, the less overall bugs you'll have. "Shared code" is the same chunk of code used multiple times in the same project. "Reusable code" is the same chunk used in *different* projects. The issue is that unless you have a *perfect* API and implementation, you will always find bugs in the shared code. As you fix those bugs, there always seems to be unintentional consequences to seemingly unrelated sections that use that code. Thereby creating bugs where none existed before. When you are affecting a single project, you can test and resolve issues quickly. But changes in Shared code need to be tested across multiple projects! One possible solution is unit testing. It is a very Good Thing, but a lot of times you can't really make good tests. For example, how do you unit test a rendering engine? And more often than not, the real bugs are the things you never considered testing. You can't unit test a glDraw* call, after all. The upshot of all this is the concept that only *perfect* code may be shared. Since there is no such thing, how does one properly create and maintain shared code? The answer is still to allow a core Shared Code set, but use a separate Branch for each project that uses it. This way you can merge useful changes back into the Trunk for the next new project, but will not affect existing projects unless the changes are intentionally moved back. Does anyone else have experiences with these kinds of issues? I've been around long enough to have amassed three generations of such shared code, having to dump it and start over every few years. Seems silly to have to do that. (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
11:06 pm [drakkenwulf]	Windows IDE thoughts Does anyone have suggestions of an IDE that works with separate editor windows? I'm a Mac guy who is very used to looking at windows of multiple apps at the same time. But during cross-platform coding, Windows' standard MDI setup of Visual Studio makes all the documents cover other apps completely when it comes frontmost. Does anyone have a suggestion? Ideally, if anyone knows a Windows extension that can simply override the MDI overall it would be superb. Even making the background of it transparent would be a huge help. Clickthrough would be wonderful. I'm not knowledgeable enough of the Windows low-level to know how to make system-wide changes. Thanks for any suggestions! (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 16th, 2009
5:32 pm [fightingwords]	Digital Multiculture Video: PSFK Conference NYC: Celestine Arnold and Digital Multiculture - PSFK.com At PSFK Conference NYC, Celestine Arnold gave an eye-opening talk on the “Ghost in the Machine: Digital Multiculture.” Celestine discussed the role of race and culture in video games - and the gaming industry’s failure to address (and successfully market towards) it. While minorities make up a disproportionately large percentage of the gaming community, most games cater to an assumed mainstream (white, male) player. Many of the same inequities, stereotypes, and social/class relations that exist in the real world, Celestine demonstrated, carry over into the gameworlds as well. And as fantastical and hyperreal as games can be, the very real effects of racism are pervasive within games and the gaming community as a whole. Celestine argued that a huge opportunity lies in creating games geared towards their multicultured players. Game developers that think beyond the dominant culture and it’s paradigms of Good v. Evil and try to understand the cultures of their diverse players may, as Celestine demonstrated, win out in the end. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, May 8th, 2009
4:35 pm [jamiecian]	I have no idea what to do here. Hey guys. I'm kinda in a weird situation and would love some external input. So my old instructor from my last school and I are really close. We're practically family after everything was said and done at my old college. He recently saw some of my game animation work and game prototypes that my small game design team and I have been working on, and he's decided that he wants to hire us. He has this idea for a game that he's wanting to pitch to different studios and game production companies and whatnot. He's got a story, some basic game mechanics in mind and all of the concept artwork. He's wanting us to design everything he'll need to have a good pitch. I've tried explaining to him that while studios picking up outside intellectual properties from unknowns isn't unheard of, it's rather unlikely. He seems to understand this and still wants us to do the work. And I have to admit that I'd love it for my portfolio, and he's willing to pay quite a bit for the work. So as it is, I'm thinking that we're going to flesh out a game design document, a game prototype in Flash (our main platform,) and a trailer demonstrating the games' selling points and wrap it up in a package suitable for pitching. But I have to admit that I'm rather sketchy on the whole thing. I've never done anything even remotely like this before. What do you guys think? Any ideas on what to charge? Is there more/less we need to do for this? Any input whatsoever would be greatly appreciated. (17 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, April 26th, 2009
5:55 pm [capncloudchaser]	Passion versus Obsession? Hey guys, I was wondering if I could ask your opinions and thoughts on passion for games when it comes to being a game developer. I've often thought that there is a difference between being passionate enough about games to want to study them and work in the industry, and being obsessed to the point all you do is play games, and nothing more. Sometimes I question whether I am passionate enough to pursue working in the industry (I study game design at University at the moment) because there is so much more to my life than just games. I like studying psychology and sociology as well, for example. Yet some self-labelled 'hardcore' gamers are quick to point out that I am not passionate enough because I don't play games all of the time, take breaks from gaming, and basically don't fill my life with gaming all of the time. Perhaps it is a valid argument? How would you guys describe your passion for games? Do you spend all of your time pursuing game based interests, or do you engage within other activities outside of gaming as well? How important do you think it is to be constantly eating, sleeping and thinking video games when it comes to working in the industry? Do your hobbies have a game-sided influence as well? Do you spend much time just relaxing and playing games outside of development? I'm really interested to see what you could say about this, for some reason, it feels hard to talk about.. Almost like it's taboo to talk about life outside of games, or something ^^ Thanks for your time! Current Mood: curious (16 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, April 20th, 2009
6:50 pm [vazor222]	An Interview with Dagda A little over a year ago I met a game designer who goes by the name of Dagda who introduced me to the intriguing tabletop RPG Trigger Discipline (links under the cut). The rules are still in beta but I'm excited for the potential behind this system. After a couple of emails, Dagda agreed to an online interview, which is here for your perusal. Enjoy! (http://vazor222.livejournal.com/12319.html) Current Mood: impressed (Comment on this)
Saturday, April 18th, 2009
2:25 pm [furrykef]	Pitching a licensed game I've started developing a visual novel version of the board game Clue (a.k.a. Cluedo) — just got a prototype working a couple of days ago — and I'm curious about the prospects of publishing it commercially. I realize it's a long shot, of course, but since I'm going to develop this thing anyway, I figure I have nothing to lose. (If it's rejected, I'll probably turn it into a parody so as to avoid a C&D.) Naturally, Clue is owned by Hasbro. But Hasbro's no longer in the gaming business, so somebody else probably has the Clue license, so I'll have to go through them. How can I find out who owns the license so I can approach them? Also, are licenses more commonly granted to publishers or game studios? I figure a game studio probably wouldn't be too keen on taking somebody else's idea when they could just make their own damn game... - Kef (11 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
11:21 am [pantsu]	game music Okay, guys and gals, I know this is a pretty off question, but I want to see if you can answer it. This requires a bit of explanation so excuse me ahead of time for the soapbox bit. An online acquaintance of mine is apparently helping in the making of a video game. He's trying to do music for it and wanted some critique. Here's the thing, though - he asked me for my opinion, the question being, "does this portray deceit and betrayal?" I told him that was hard to answer regardless of what the music sounds like. I, for one, believe that several elements throughout the developmental process of a game contribute to the music, which is supposed to enhance gameplay. If you don't do it right or well it only gets in the way. Here's the link to the musical score (no download necessary) so you can listen while I ramble. He was able to tell me this much - the point is to survive through all means necessary. He couldn't tell me what the protagonist was surviving from - he pretty much said it could be anything from people to zombies to whatever and that it might change throughout the game. He likened it to Half-Life but wouldn't explain how, and since even Half-Life was clear on the objectives of the conflict, I'm totally lost on what he meant. He didn't give me an estimated period of history through which this game would take place or anything. Just that it was a survivor game. He explained he didn't believe any of that mattered in regards to his question - was the music deceitful? I in turn explained that there are different kinds and tiers of deceit and betrayal - furthermore, things like the timespan mattered because you have to make it fit with the game regardless of what the musical theme has to be. For instance, music with a lot of electric guitar solos or a sitar likely would not go well with a game themed in the medieval timespan, even if the song cast off a deceitful theme, you know? And as I said, certain elements of the game would affect whether or not the music should be loud, long, more intense, etc. You simply have to know things about the game to cast sound judgment on this specific attribute. My question to you guys is - what do you think? Not in terms of who is "right" or "wrong," because I don't think either of us even care. We're more interested in making sure the music sounds deceitful for a video game. So upon listening to the song (which is still in the works, I should add), do you think it fits the deceitful theme well? Are you comfortable critiquing to this degree without an adequate amount of information? Thanks for the help ahead of time. :> Edit: I should add that I personally think the general beat and sound would fit fairly well, but again, the instruments are important, and I don't feel like I can accurately critique this without more information, which is why I'm asking you guys. I'm hoping maybe you are more comfortable casting judgment on this piece, or perhaps offering other assistance in doing so. Crossposted to girl_gamers. Current Mood: confused (21 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009
5:06 pm [abovenyquist]	Notes on the GDC2009 XNA Game Studio Developer Day I'm at GDC this week; here are my notes from the XNA Game Studio Developer Day. (Please leave comments at the linked post so all the comments are in one spot.)
Thursday, March 19th, 2009
7:41 pm [nnnslogan]	Unity Unity is a multiplatform game development tool, designed from the start to ease creation. A fully integrated professional application, Unity just happens to contain the most powerful engine this side of a million dollars. http://unity3d.com/unity/ (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 17th, 2009
5:25 pm [reallife2010]	helpfull job link. Not sure if anybodys linked to it here yet. But this Games Dev Map has been the most useful bit of kit I've ever used when looking for company's I should send job-e-mails to. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
5:16 pm [nnnslogan]	Construct Construct is a free powerful and easy to use development software for both DirectX 9-based games and applications. It includes an event based system for defining how the game or application will behave, in a visual, human-readable way - easy enough for complete beginners to get results quickly. Optionally, advanced users can also use Python scripting to code your creations. Construct is not a commercial software project, and is developed by volunteers. It is 100% free to download the full version - no nag screens, adverts or restricted features at all. Features Create games and applications with: Super fast hardware-accelerated DirectX 9 graphics engine Add multiple pixel shaders for special effects, including lighting, HDR, distortion, lenses and more Advanced rendering effects like motion blur, skew and bumpmapping (3D lighting) Innovative Behaviors system for defining how objects work in a flexible way Physics engine for realistic object behavior Bone animation system for smooth, dynamic animations using separate objects as 'limbs' Place object on different layers for organising display, parallaxing, or whole-layer effects - also freely zoom individual layers in and out with high detail Debugger giving you complete control over all aspects of your game for testing purposes. Python scripting for advanced users - however, Construct's Events system is still powerful enough to complete entire games without any scripting. Smaller, faster specialised runtime for applications 60+ plugins ranging from Tiled Background to Windows controls and a C++ plugin SDK for custom development Development process Construct is developed open source under the General Public License (GPL). This means you can download and use Construct for free, but it also means that the underlying source code - the code that defines how the program works - is also freely available. This means other programmers are free to fix errors in the code and make their own contributions to Construct. Development is located on Construct's SourceForge.net page. For more information, see Open-source Software (Wikipedia) and GPL (Wikipedia), the open-source license Construct uses. User Interface Library Construct uses the Prof-UIS professional user interface library, with kind permission of FOSS Software, Inc. Remember if you wish to use this library in your own project, you must purchase the appropriate license from the website. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
5:11 pm [nnnslogan]	Delta3D <tr><td bgcolor="#fefeff" align="left" valign="bottom"></td><td bgcolor="#fefeff" align="right"></td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="#fefeff" valign="top" colspan="2">  Delta3D is a widely used and well-supported open source game and simulation engine. Delta3D is a fully-featured game engine appropriate for a wide variety of uses including training, education, visualization, and entertainment. Delta3D is unique because it offers features specifically suited to the Modeling and Simulation and DoD communities such as High Level Architecture (HLA), After Action Review (AAR), large scale terrain support, and SCORM Learning Management System (LMS) integration. The Delta3D Engine Delta3D is an Open Source engine which can be used for games, simulations, or other graphical applications. Its modular design integrates other well-known Open Source projects such as Open Scene Graph, Open Dynamics Engine, Character Animation Library, and OpenAL. Rather than bury the underlying modules, Delta3D integrates them together in an easy-to-use API -- always allowing access to the important underlying components. This provides a high-level API while still allowing the end user the optional, low-level functionality. For a full list of features, please see The Delta3D Feature List. Delta3D renders using OpenGL and imports a whole list of diverse file formats (.flt, .3ds, .obj, etc.). Supported Platforms Delta3D is developed and tested on Windows XP using Microsoft Visual Studio and Linux using gcc. All the underlying dependencies are cross-platform as well, so just about any platform should be compatible with a few minor modifications to the source. Unofficially, there is general support for Mac OSX and many users are successfully developing Delta3D applications on that platform. </td></tr> (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, March 13th, 2009
9:09 pm [suzerain]	Portfolio Critique Well, I've sort of got a portfolio that's mostly to my satisfaction - needs a lot more samples of textures, normal maps etc to show that I can do all that, and character design areas are horribly under-represented, as I hate my figure work, and never have liked it... But I'd appreciate any critique of where to improve, since at the moment, I really dont want to start sending CVs with "please, I'm desperate for a job, I give really good head...." so, rip the folio apart, please, tell me what's appropriate, what's crap, if the colours blow goats, etc, etc. There's no CV linked to the website deliberately, I should add, as it's generally only linked with CVs sent out I should mention. http://3dfolio.com/jge/ (1 Comment |Comment on this)
1:00 pm [deadlytoque]	Intro I'm an amateur game designer (RPGs, board, and card) and I've recently started writing little articles/musings about things I think about games and things I see in terms of game development and design. I'd be happy to have some comments! (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 10th, 2009
9:59 pm [wetfishflunky]	I didn't mean that i was going to steal games or anything like that, i'm totally against stealing games, its unfair to the people who spend time creating it, just like stealing things from a shopping center. I like to watch tv from other countries cause i find it interesting, but only problem being I can only download them and then watch it, well i had a friend that used to get it for me, anyway point being i wanted opinions on whether downloading with a torrent is safe, and from the responses i've recieved i guess not. Well thank you anyway, for those of you who gave an honest answer and didn't just vent there rage. (BTW, all of you who think that I was trying to steal games or something, I have a game collection with a net worth of $9000, so suck on that) =P (13 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009
10:37 am [glebedev]	Interactive DVD game I'm working on a game book adventure. You can check current MS Silverlight version here: http://101gr.com/HtmlGame/Silverlight.aspx?id=181 Author of the game text is from Italy, I'm from Russia, so we aren't native seakers. I plan to make interactive DVD game based on this gamebook. Is there any possible commercial potential in this? Or what can I do add some commercial value to the product? Can you suggest any other platform where such game could have any future? iPhone for example... (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, March 2nd, 2009
1:14 pm [redregon]	Website Hosting alternatives? Hey there, hard times means i was unable to renew my domain and website... and i'm still hoping to get into a gig (modeling, rigging and texturing primarily... focusing on characters and Entry level stuff ideally, only worked on one real gaming gig for a short time.) ... i've heard that some companies will basically ignore an applicant if they have something like a free website kinda deal (like Tripod or whatever) so, what places do you know of that are good places to showcase your work that are free? will employers still turn up their nose if someone's portfolio is on a free site or are places like DeviantArt/ConceptArt.org/Various 3D geared sites with portfolio features generally acceptable? also, is my information about companies being kinda hard-nosed about portfolio sites that are free completely misinformed? (5 Comments |Comment on this)
3:08 pm [wetfishflunky]	torrents Now this is the only comm so far that i trust so if this question is off topic im sorry but i was wondering about downloading with torrents, whether its a good idea or not and where some good torrent downloading sites are. I just got the internet on my own laptop, *victory pose* and i dont want to wreck it straight away Any help would be very much so appreciated.. (11 Comments |Comment on this)